With the increasingly diverse use of cassava products in Nigeria, cassava farming is getting more lucrative with every passing day. This farm product has always been a source of lively hood and food for millions of Nigerians. 90% of Nigerian households consume cassava products everyday. Some of the meals are: garri, wheat-flour, animal feed, commercial caramel, and a lot more.

As the population of Nigeria, and Africa as a whole continues to grow, the demand for cassava products will continue to skyrocket, leading to higher revenues generated by cassava farmers. This widespread consumption of cassava products will continue to place it as a cash crop that always gets bought after a harvest, and guarantees a good profit after sales.

Why then haven’t a lot of people ventured into cassava farming? The popular answer is the lack of capital. Capital hinders a lot of business activities from taking off. But with the economic recession been experienced in Nigeria, the Nigerian government through the country’s Bank Of Agriculture (BOA) has now made more agriculture loans available to millions of potential & active farmers. Taking advantage of the government’s agricultural loans and incentives at this time is a good way to start up your own cassava farm. You can find information on how to get and secure agricultural loans in Nigeria here.

If you’re looking for an agricultural business that would ensure you always almost sell out all your harvests, cassava farming is one great farming business to start.

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Here’s a business plan template for how to start a cassava farm and processing business in Nigeria:

1). Select A Good Site For Your Cassava Farm:

When getting a site to setup a cassava farm, pick an area with deep well drained loamy soil, adequate rainfall, and warm & moist climatic conditions. Cassava grows best in these areas. An easy way to identify lands with these conditions is to see if:

There’s a thick vegetation around it,

The soil texture is good,

The land is flat or gently sloping.

Picking the right location to setup your cassava farm is extremely important. Make sure the locals and food scientists can verify the richness of the soil before you proceed to make a purchase.

2). Improve The Soil For Planting The Cassavas:

This step is not important if you already selected a good site to grow your cassava crops. But if you didn’t, you’d need to spend a lot of money to improve the soil. Some practices commonly used to improve the soil for cultivation are:

Manure your soil,

Prepare good seedbeds,

Planting the cassava along with other crops, and more.

Your soil must be very fertile for cultivation else, you’d lose millions. Little mistakes as this should be totally avoided. But the best route still, is to choose a good site. This way, you don’t have to go through the pain of improving the soil for planting the cassava stem cuttings.

3). Select The Best Cassava Variety To Plant:

There are wide breeds of cassavas that you can grow. But the best breeds to cultivate are the types that’s widely accepted by your target market, gives great yields, grows fast, and are resistant to pests and diseases. The major factors involved in selecting the right cassava breed to grow are:

Varieties with good food quality

Varieties with good cooking abilities

Varieties that bulk early

Varieties with good ground storability

Varieties that are tolerant to pests, diseases, and weed.

Selecting the right breed to go with, will determine how successful your cassava farm will be. If you grow what people are not interested in, you’d go out of business faster than you imagined. Find out what the available buyers in the locality are interested in, then grow those types of cassava crops.

4). Select Healthy Cassava Stem Cuttings:

Cassava stem cuttings are used to grow cassava crops. Selecting healthy stems is crucial to growing rich cassava crops that your market would quickly purchase. You can buy cassava stem cuttings in town markets and villages. After your initial purchase of the cassava stem cuttings, the best place to keep getting healthy cassava stem cuttings are on your own farm. Planting healthy stem cuttings is important because they’d help you to greatly reduce the spread of cassava pests and diseases. When getting cassava stem cuttings, this is the best guide to follow:

Find healthy cassava plants.

Stay away from cassava plants that have or have had a history of pest and diseases.

5). Plant The Cassava Right:

Before you plant your cassava crop products, you need to consider the land tillage method, the time of the year, the seed bed type, and the method of preparation, handling, and planting of the cassava stem cuttings. Planting the cassava within all the right conditions will ensure you reap a healthy harvest. It will increase chances of good yields, and would ensure you always have the cassava harvests just when a lot of buyers need it.

6). Setup & Production Cost:

Just as any other startup business, a great execution of your cassava farming business can make you a millionaire. You need to understand the perfect costing needs to ensure you’re not going to generate a negative cash flow. Here is a sample costing for setting up a cassava farm in Nigeria:

Cassava farming remains a lucrative agricultural venture if executed right. Try not to cut corners when setting up a cassava farm, and you’d end up growing the right crops everyone desperately wants to buy. With this agric business, you can be guaranteed your farm products would sell out all the time.

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About Stan Edom

I'm an entrepreneur with an expertise in supply chain management, small business development, e-commerce, internet startups, and agriculture. In my spare time, I'm always trying to solve problems people face in their everyday lives with tech.

7 Easy Business Ideas You Can Start TodayThere is a wide number of possible business ideas anyone could venture into. Depending on the startup capital, experience, or qualification required to enter an industry, there’s always something...

153 Comments Already

Hi
Thanks for sharing your knowledge,it’s very informative and helpful.
I wanted to know if the figures and data are recent inorder for me to complete my cassava business plan.
I want to own my own cassava processing plant but in a small scare, do you know how much this will cost me?

I found your topic informative and make me want to learn this business.
i want to venture into cassava business be it processing or cultivation from the the beginning but I dont have any experience whatsoever on it which now bring me to my real questions;

1 . How can one source for Cassava
2 . What to budget for buying
3 . How to do the processing
4 . What to produce
5 . How to Market the product
6 . Are there any organization to join when venturing into this

Please kindly enlighten us on these highlighted questions and also add your own if I have missed out anything .

Hello Stan please I’d like to know if you have a personal experience in cassava farming and if yes where do you have your farm, what is your hectrage like, and what variety of cassava did you plant? Joseph Odama from the international institute of tropical agriculture (IITA) Ibadan. Telephone+2348060181862. Thanks.

Hello Mr. Stan, I have about 20 hectares of land and I wish to cultivate cassava in it. Please i need help and assistance. How many tonnes of cassava can be harvested in a hectare on land and how much is a tonne?

pls, i need to know how buy cassava tuber from farmers in nigeria because i want to venture into agriculture
tell me the details
the address, email, the price and any other information i need to know
thanks.God bless u

Thank you for the information because information is power.i would like to ask you sir, i like to venture into agric. business but am little bit confused whether to go into pigry or cassava? your advice

This write up is xtremely informative and poverty alleviating indeed.Recent market survey tells about the skyrocketing price of the white yam flour popularly call (Elubo Lafun). Well done keep it up @ more grease to ur elbow.Riches lies in filthiness @ only the sensitive @ wise can discover it.Let’s go back to our known african profession

This write up is highly educative and informative I really appreciate the effort of the write
May God Almighty continue to be with u
My question is that can u assist to give a rough estimate on the cost of farming cassava on 10acres of land. thanks for your anticipated response.

Hello Stanley. Weldone for the good work. Pls, I am interested in the cassava farming. I met a professional farmer who told me that to get 1acre of land, clearing and cultivating on lease is #60k and havesting is #150k i.e during havesting time 1acre of land of cassava can only give #150k but I was wondering how can I acre of land give 150k where 1 pickup motor is #120k in ogun state. Pls. How much can I make in one acre of cassava land. Thx.

The reality is the fertility of the soil will determine what value of cassava you’d harvest and the cost of clearing and harvesting is dependent on your negotiating power.

Also, generating 150,000 Naira ($500) for an acre now (2016/2017) is a far cry. It is most likely 100,000 Naira worth of cassava max, except if the land is very fertile, and so, can produce larger and better cassava yields.

This is one reason people buy acres of land to cultivate cassava crops.

hello Mr Stan pls are u saying #60,000 can cultivate 1acre of cassava farmland with due considerations to cost of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizer and other farm inputs. my second question is that I was told by a consultant that from a very good fertile land we should be able to get 25-30 tonnes pls is it true with respect to your answer above (#100,000) that you said is realistic

The truth is, it’s better you go through a business plan competition like AYEEN. They shortlist business plans and help facilitate funding for them through the Bank of Industry (BOI). Last year, they helped about 500 businesses.

The eBook is currently in the works. When it’s available, I’ll do well to let everyone know.

pls help me out, some one said to buy cassava stem for an acre will cost like 60k, pls aw true is that? and how many heaps can be made for cassava cultivation on an acre ? pls how much averagely (profit) can be gotten from an acre?

The profit from an acre is largely dependent on your cost of labour and your cassava yield. The yield is determined by the fertility level of the land and if you’re using high yield cassava stem cuttings or not. The truth is after 12 months, you may not make up to 100,000 Naira in profits if you’re not using high yield cassava stem cuttings. The larger the scale at which you execute your cassava farm, the more profitable you can be.

Also, you can’t completely determine how many stem cuttings will work for an acre because the farmland measurements are different per state. The best way to know for sure in your own state is to buy and plant.

Concerning heaps per acre, the tubers don’t grow in proportion to each other. some are usually far bigger than others, resulting in different numbers on every harvest.

Great work and thanks for sharing. I have just acquired 65 acres of land and prefer to plant cassava, maize and soya beans mainly. The farm is in Ido local government of Oyo State. Please where can we source high quality seeds and cassava cuttings we need. Also what is the quantity we need for the space.
Regards

Hello kunle, am currently within ido local government and privileged to have an access to land for farming right now, however I believe I can help or assist on reputable places of where to get high quality cassava stem cuttings and maize seeds as well, the maize seeds have planted has been good from the result am seeing even by planting 1 seed, 2 seeds, 3 seeds and 4 seeds per hole, have seen a 98% germination rate so far. As for the cassava stems, it depends on the specie you want which is also dependent on the market you are targeting. if you have further questions you can let me know and you can also contact me for more information Through my email Oluwafemiakinwa@gmail.com

Hi, I have always desired to go into Agriculture however, I am still comtemplating on the particular product to cultivate, the quantity of land to purchase, the cost implication and the location for the farm. I need a guide for the different options of crops with the inherent pros and cons to enable me make a good choice. I will very much love to chat and talk with you on this if you will be available.

Tanks so much Stan.I’ve learnt alot from this post. I just need a little clarification,u said 25-30tonnes can be gotten 4rm an hectare of land and each tonne cost about 25,000naira. If that is the case how come u said ones profit in an hectare of land may not be up to 100,000naira,when 25,000×30tonnes should be giving about 750000.please clarify me on this. tt

One way you can store your cassava stems is by burying them after harvest, so they don’t dry up. They can also be stored in trenches under the shades of mostly plantains, amongst several other methods like roguing.

And againg I already have about an hectre of land availale in Ukwa East, Abia State, and from your land specs, i believe the land qualifies to be used as a cassava farm, because Ukwa East lga is known to have a flatbed landscape.
Sir, pardon me to ask if it is necessary to wait till April before i can plant my cassava if i want to use irrigation farming method. I plan to use artificial water instead of waiting for the rain, don’t know if it is possible?

I really love what you guys are doing, a big thanks to you all. In the future when are investment yield i would really want to have you guys as my consultant.

Hello, I can say this for sure, what you’ve got on your site is revolutionary and enough to change anybody’s life. Just stumbled on your site and have been going through your articles and honestly at about 12:17am, I can’t hide my excitement cos I found just what I’ve been looking for. I will love to have your thought on Cassava processing in huge commercial scale, if it’s profitable as standalone venture. Picking a start with the thought of the financial implications and other requirements has left me somewhat stuck if not overwhelmed. I will really appreciate a perspective for direction.
Thanks.

Hello Stan… This is such a wonderful piece and I am about to start up my own cassava farm. I just acquired 10acres of land in Ogun state. I don’t have any experience in Farming and I have a budget of 500k for the 10 acres which is to cover all labour cost as well as planting. This is a fertile land cos there are lots of cassava farms around. My fear is how to control pest and rodents and how much do I stand to gain on 10acres. Thank you

Hello Stan,
You are such a gift….
Can u advise on Inter-cropping maize and castor…and also which do u think is more profitable,maize or cassava farming please.I will also like to chat u on whatsapp pls….08137575773

Hi Stan. I can only say thank you very much for all you are doing for Nigerians who are interested in agriculture. May God bless you abundantly and the Holy Book says that “He adds no pain to His blessings.” Please I want to know which is more profitable between cassava farming and yam farming giving that all conditions are right? thank you very much in advance for your response.

I am Adeola. I have gone through your responses to peoples’ question and thanks for the selfless contribution.

I plan venturing into garri processing using my cassava farming as source of raw materials.

I need a business plan on both cassava farming and garri processing. Am interested in what tonage of garri can the machine process per day and what tonage of cassava required. This will inform me of how many acres of land do i need to plan for in order not to run out of raw materials throughout the year.

I also need your ebook on cassava farming. I need to know the best time to plant my cassava.

This is really awesome and inspiring. I have been doing a lot of research lately on which of the crops to start farming. I buy the idea of this cassava farming and I will be glad if I can have access to the Ebook on Cassava farming. Thanks for the good work and empowerment of startups.

I am James Mwape, a Zambian. I want to venture into cassava production and processing. I have been encouraged by the way Nigerians handle cassava. My main interest at the moment is in finished products which can be sold by simple businesses. I asking you to give me information on some of these products.
I would appreciate if you can provide me with any information you think can be useful. Thanks in anticipation.

Hello Abidemi, getting a competent consultant or a professional is the best solution on cultivating the 53 acres, However I can be of great impact either as a consultant, professional or any other. I have a cassava farm of my own, and I also belong to a cooperative whereby we are cultivating cassava and maize on 450 acres next planting season. However, so many people lose money in farming due to lack of technical know-how which I can provide like selecting and getting a viable specie of cassava through stakeholders in IITA. conditions to be met for bumper harvest etc. You can contact me Via my email: Oluwafemiakinwa@gmail.com for my services.

Good morning stan, you are doing a great job here, I really do appreciate your effort! please I want to start cassava farming on an acre of land in ogun state basically for garri processing, I am deeply interested on how not to run out of raw material after the 1st harvest so production can continue all year round! and please do you have any idea of how I can get a locally fabricated peelers, washers,graters, de-watering system or big hydraulics system, all equipment needed to set up a small scale garri processing factory with less labour? my e mail is deinde_babatunde@yahoo.com